diddle

To diddle is defined as to behave in an unproductive manner or to cheat or lie about something on purpose.

An example of diddle is when you aimlessly toss a yo-yo around because you are bored.

An example of diddle is when you lie about how much was in the shared tip jar, cheating your coworkers and keeping more for yourself.

diddle

transitive verb

-·dled, -·dling

Informal to move back and forth in a jerky or rapid manner; jiggle

Slang

to have sexual intercourse with

to masturbate

Origin of diddle

dialect, dialectal duddle, diddle, to totter, akin to dodder

to move back and forth jerkily or rapidly

transitive verb

-·dled, -·dling

to cheat, swindle, or victimize

to waste (time) in trifling: often followed by away

Origin of diddle

uncertain or unknown; perhaps after Jeremy Diddler, character in the play Raising the Wind (1803), by James Kenney: name probably from dialect, dialectal duddle, to trick, ultimately from Old English dyderian, to fool

to waste time; dawdle

diddle

transitive verb

did·dled, did·dling, did·dles

Slang To cheat; swindle: “The Swiss have special laws for people who diddle hotels” ( John le Carré )

Origin of diddle

Perhaps akin to Old English dydrianto deceive,or from variant of dialectal doodlefool, simpleton Low German dudeldopp

Related Forms:

did′dler

noun

verb

did·dled, did·dling, did·dles

verb

transitive

To jerk up and down or back and forth.

Vulgar Slang

a. To have intercourse with (a woman).

b. To practice masturbation upon.

verb

intransitive

To shake rapidly; jiggle.

Slang To play experimentally; toy: The children diddled with the knobs on the television all afternoon.

diddle

Noun

(plural diddles)

(music) In percussion, two consecutive notes played by the same hand (either RR or LL), similar to the drag, except that by convention diddles are played the same speed as the context in which they are placed

From dialectal duddle, "to trick" (16th century), "to totter" (17th century); perhaps influenced by the name (which itself was probably chosen as an allusion to duddle) of the swindling character Jeremy Diddler in Kenney's Raising the Wind (1803). Meaning "to have sex with" is from the 19th century, "to masturbate" is 1950's.

Sentence Examples

The peat is different in character from that of northern Europe: cellular plants enter but little into its composition, and it is formed almost entirely of the roots and stems of Empetrum rubrum, a variety of the common crowberry of the Scottish hills with red berries, called by the Falklanders the " diddle-dee " berry; of Myrtus nummularia, a little creeping myrtle whose leaves are used by the shepherds as a substitute for tea; of Caltha appendiculata, a dwarf species of marsh-marigold; and of some sedges and sedge-like plants, such as Astelia pumila, Gaimardia australis and Bostkovia grandif ora.